"Chai tin dai sing suen ng hung" (2002) TV series

User Rating:

3.8/10   

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy

Plot:

Adapted from the classic chinese novel "Journey to the West", The Monkey King (Dicky Cheung) got punished...

Plot Keywords:

Monkey King

Cast

Sammi Cheng	...	Buddha Goon Yum
Dicky Cheung	...	The Monkey King
Andy Hui Chi-On	...	The Dragon Horse
Charlene Choi	...	Ji Lan
Gillian Chung	...	Ji Mei
Eddy Ko	...	Emperor Tong
Eric Kot	...	Chu Bak Gai
Kar-Ying Law	...	Golden Star
Sam Lee	...	The Sand Monk
San-san Lee	...	Seven Treasures
Edmond Leung	...	The Mentor
Ka-Yan Leung	...	Lee Ching
Jimmy Lin	...	Na Ja
Jackie Lui Chung-yin	...	Yeung Jin (as Jackie Lui)
Simon Lui	...	Siu But
William So Wing Hong	...	The Dragon King of the East Sea (as William So)
Paulyn Sun	...	The Spider Evil
Eric Tsang	...	Bodhi
Kenneth Tsang	...	The King of Heaven
Nicholas Tse	...	The Hell Warrior
Yut Fei Wong	...	The Bull Evil
Kristy Yang	...	The Skeleton Evil
Anita Yuen	...	The Goddess of Nine Heaven
Fennie Yuen	...	The Snake Evil

Also Known As:

"Chai tin dai sing suen ng hung" (China: Cantonese title)
"Qi tian da sheng sun wu kong" (China: Mandarin title)
"The Monkey King" (Hong Kong: English title)

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB)

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ping Shao Han: Ascension (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Disciple

Goofy but Good

The only review I see for this series right now is one which talks about how they could not possibly fit too much stuff in a 2 hour movie. Since this is a series of one hour episodes, I am not sure what the complaint is. I have not read any but a small portion of a Journey West, so I cannot say how true it is staying, but of what I do know it is actually sort of close.

The acting style is mixed, sometimes being dead on and sometimes being jester-like. I really enjoy it on a cross between an inner-child level and a martial arts level, though I have to admit that it does not satiate more mature watching interests. It is great stress relief though.

Special effects are not that bad, in fact they are comparable to an american sci-fi series. It is not low budget nor high budget, but they manage to do a good job with what they have. The one main exception is everyone but the monkey' kings monkey outfit, which are often just obviously clothes. And you have scenes like in the first one where you can see a camel being lead by an obvious rope. I do not know if they are only trying to invoke an image (much like a stage show in which you are trying to have the setting suggested a lot of the time) or if it is just poor editing.

Story line is great, and the acting it out is good if a little goofy. American audiences might dislike the way it jumps from scene to scene, but those used to asian cinema and tv should be used to a slightly different respect for time.

Watch the first 10 minutes of the first two episodes. They show a wide variety of the physical and visual humor and the drama involved. The scenes overall work. They are funny when they mean to be and introspective when they mean to be. I recommend.